No sharks: Albemarle closes its beaches... to save $6K

Despite a summer of searing heat and an impending holiday weekend, Albemarle County has decided to close its three swimming beaches two weeks early, according to a report by the Newsplex. Reporter Mark Tenia found that Albemarle officials decided to close the beaches last weekend and again this weekend at Chris Greene Lake, Walnut Creek, and Mint Springs Valley Park to save about $6,000 in pay to lifeguards and cashiers. The beaches closed Sunday, August 22, according to the County website.

As news of the closure began spreading, outrage erupted because the three beaches provided a low-cost way for cash-strapped families to enjoy a simple vacation and because the amount of money saved pales beside some of the other expenditures in the County's $292 million budget.

On Wednesday morning, September 1, County spokesperson Lee Catlin issued a press release noting that the cutback was decided during the 2010/2011 fiscal year budget process–- with zero public comment back then. She also notes that the season passes mention the early closing date and that a poster with the closing date was "prominently displayed" at all three County beaches.

–story augmented 11:51am, Wednesday, September 1 with final two paragraphs including the County's side of the controversy

47 comments

Ã¢â?¬Å?prominently displayedÃ¢â?¬Â September 4th, 2010 | 1:05pm

all I can say is that after numerous visits, and having stopped at the booth to pay entrance fees ( which by the way on one occasion was not staffed, i.e. loss of revenue...)
never did we see anything "prominently displayed" . We only discovered the lake was closing that day because we asked. You figure maybe on the last day, they could post a sign as a reminder,(and apology) saying something about budget cuts as well as thanking all patrons. As someone else mentioned, if you can't keep all three open, at least keep one. Or, close one early, beginning of August say, the second 2-3 weeks later, and the third at the end of the season.
Anyway.. a great disappointment and a great disservice.

Yes September 3rd, 2010 | 11:17am

Well, except for the 12 who died building a bonfire for a pep rally. #PalinNation

angel eyes September 3rd, 2010 | 12:18am

Sarah Palin should know a thing or two about being above one's pay grade.

Gasbag Self Ordained Expert August 31st, 2010 | 2:34pm

Prainva, the city and county will do as they please. It has nothing to do with where the dollars originate. As a taxpayer, you're considered to be at the lowest point of the food chain when decisions need to be made. Even if those decisions affect you and your family. And, unlike most cities and counties nationwide, our city and county will never resort to laying anybody off to save money as well.

Why in the world they couldn't foresee the real estate bubble bursting (and lower taxes coming in) is beyond belief. They just kept spending like there was no tomorrow.

very old timer August 31st, 2010 | 2:26pm

Whoever decided that it is ok for the average homeowner to pay over two grand a year in property taxes and then close the beaches for what is a short summer season anyway should be fired or resign.

There are 40,000 people in the county... thats 15 CENTS per person to keep them open.

How sad is it that we have people in positions of power that they would cut the one thing that even the poorest among us can use.

I guess they want the taxpayers to cough up more money for them to misspend next year.

Sad, very sad. They probably spent half that in police overtime harrasing people tubing down the river over the last two weekends.

Whats next, sending cops out to collect overdue library books?

Maybe someone should just go to the ounty office building on any friday afternoon and furlogh anybody who is not working for the day.

We could probably build an indoor beach with that savings...

Yes September 2nd, 2010 | 12:00pm

we just can’t have Virginia’s lack of intelligence and really backwards way of law enforcement, planning and strategy infecting other parts of the country. by the way, i walk softly and carry a big stick. it is just truly amazing that Virginia has so many problems with its universities, law enforcement, state and federal agencies, taxation and educational system when Virginia receives the largest amount of federal funding with the highest per county wealth. and yet, girls keep turning up missing, abducted and dead left and right in Virginia with no resolution and/or solution. i am not saying it isn’t taking place in other states, but with all the money in Virginia and no disclosure in place by state officials ”Š Virginia is a real problem moving forward.
***
osama, what are you talking about? Virginia has two of the six highest ranked public universities in this country. Perhaps if you weren't fixated on tabloid websites and occasionally read a book, then you would have a different view.

Calling It Like I See It September 2nd, 2010 | 12:29pm

Old Timer,

Right on.

Angel Eyes August 31st, 2010 | 11:22pm

Tired of...;
Go to sleep. Try posting again in the morning

osama September 2nd, 2010 | 3:46pm

@ Yes

ranking = endowments and has nothing to do with contribution, safety, efficiency and/or productivity

osama September 3rd, 2010 | 10:23am

Yes - that is no way to talk about your next president ...
cutalinguist - i think it is hilarious that you still get your information from the bible ... wow, when the confederates loose they go big.
sarah palin should know a thing or two about being above one's pay grade - she is now worth over 30 million.
Yes / Cutalinguist - it really must hurt that women can vote and work?

osama September 3rd, 2010 | 10:28am

at least people from A&M live to be productive members of society ... Duke and Cornell have ridiculous suicide rates and you know how i feel about Virginia - so many dead girls so little time. it doesn't matter what your "ranking" is if your students don't live long enough to graduate.

osama September 2nd, 2010 | 11:33am

@ old dominion minion:
we just can't have Virginia's lack of intelligence and really backwards way of law enforcement, planning and strategy infecting other parts of the country. by the way, i walk softly and carry a big stick. it is just truly amazing that Virginia has so many problems with its universities, law enforcement, state and federal agencies, taxation and educational system when Virginia receives the largest amount of federal funding with the highest per county wealth. and yet, girls keep turning up missing, abducted and dead left and right in Virginia with no resolution and/or solution. i am not saying it isn't taking place in other states, but with all the money in Virginia and no disclosure in place by state officials ... Virginia is a real problem moving forward.

Yes September 2nd, 2010 | 4:12pm

Right, osama. I'm sure that measures of faculty quality, student selectivity, etc. are in no way included in rankings. It always explains why Texas A&M, which has a larger endowment than Duke, Cornell, and the entire University of California system, doesn't come close to those schools in overall rankings.

Dan1101 September 2nd, 2010 | 4:15pm

I notice the Daily Progress article on this has comments disabled.

Angel Eyes August 31st, 2010 | 3:09pm

GBSOE;
Quaint old tradition letting cops drive the ole black and white home so as to maintain a neighborhood reassuring inchoate police presence. Doesn't really work anymore though what with few real neighborhoods, since parking the cruiser in some out-of-the-way cul-de-sac where it won't be seen by passers by does little except provide a fringe benefit for the officer and essentially multiply the number of police vehicles the county must buy. Also, be a shame for one of Alb, county's finest shaved head crypto storm troopers to get popped for impersonating a police officer over in Waynesboro!

I'm all for a little of the good old police harassment of the lowered rice rocket, noise maker, punkmobile crowd though.

But as far as revenue issues go, localities have a thing for shutting down really visible things during budgetary crises. Why make the police share cruisers, or delay by a year the gratuitous repaving of Hydraulic Rd. when you can do in-your-face stuff to the taxpayers like close the library on weekends or shut down the beaches. Make them feel the pain and you can soften them up for that property tax rate bump.

local40 September 1st, 2010 | 11:32am

why don'y you just beat a path around the fence and just go swimming anyway? change will happen when enough people have the balls to DO something instead of talk about it.

--story augmented 11:51am, Wednesday, September 1 with final two paragraphs including the County's side of the controversy. See Below:

As news of the closure began spreading, outrage erupted because the three beaches provided a low-cost way for cash-strapped families to enjoy a simple vacation and because the amount of money saved pales beside some of the other expenditures in the County's $292 million budget.

On Wednesday morning, September 1, County spokesperson Lee Catlin issued a press release noting that the cutback was decided during the 2010/2011 fiscal year budget process--- with zero public comment back then. She also notes that the season passes mention the early closing date and that a poster with the closing date was "prominently displayed" at all three County beaches.

scottsville person August 31st, 2010 | 3:56pm

take the kids to the james river. it's free and they can watch all the grownups get drunk while they float down the river and then drive home. consider it a cultural experience.

cya August 31st, 2010 | 3:58pm

On principle this bothers me, but who knows how many people were actually affected? How many people swam there the weekend before? Maybe very few. Who wants to support a lifeguard's pay if he/she is only monitoring one family? There are tradeoffs to every decision.

Drowning August 31st, 2010 | 3:59pm

It is a TEA BAG driven decision. Make no mistake...cut cut cut and save the tax payers some money. That 6K can now go into something else that was going to be cut. Boyd and Snow made this decision. Save that 15cent!!

Whateva! August 31st, 2010 | 6:09pm

AE and TC...unfortunately, the hiring of "consultants" in AC an Cville seems the norm to keep work from BEING done. Always a "study" to be done...(save the newts!!) How many times did AC hire a "consultant" spending every last penny given to them from the state over how many YEARS for the 29 bypass and other major projects? Unfortunately, the money spent on "consultants" over the years, could have already had these projects done. The closing of the beaches is just a drop in the bucket to what they have spent on these "consultants". Too bad they didn't figure this out sooner and cut the costs in those fees....imagine how long they could keep the beaches open on that???

MARY August 31st, 2010 | 3:44pm

WHAT ELSE CAN CHILDREN DO TO HAVE FUN IN THE SUMMER HEAT,AND THIS HAS BEEN A HOT ONE.TWO OF MY FIVE CHILDREN JUST LEARNED HOW TO SWIM TO THE DOCK AND WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO ONE OR TWO MORE TRIPS TO THE LAKE BEFORE THEY CLOSED FOR THE SUMMER.IT'S SOMETHING WE ENJOY EVERY YEAR AND THIS YEAR WE COULDN'T AFFORD VIRGINIA BEACH,THE COUNTY SHOULD BE ASHAMED,TAKING AWAY SWIMMING FROM FAMILIES.

Angel Eyes August 31st, 2010 | 5:12pm

As for the damn consultants,people in local govt. who hire "consultants" (synonym for shyster in my opinion) should be dismissed their positions for official malfeasance. This sort of thing is hopelessly irresponsible when local govt' employees can be assigned the job of weighing the various options using landsat images and information readily available on the net. One or two people in the planning dept. can earn their salaries by preparing a report. Once they have a plan, they can hire an engineering firm for the final design. This is one of the preposterous behaviors of local governments, emblematic of our times, and is a scandalous misappropriation of public funds.

Charlottesville residents remember the fees paid for consultants hired to come up with plans to screw up traffic flow in Greenbrier and on Park St?? They could have googled "traffic calming" and sketched out Park St. in 5 minutes on a BevNap while enjoying a beer at their favorite brew-pub.

If they need help over at the county with that dam, I've got a 100 year set of Encyclopaedia Britannica that has a good article on hydraulic engineering complete with all the mathematical formulae they'll need to work out the details. They can design the thing and then pass the plans to a civil engineering firm for tweeking.
The ongoing saga of the reservoir dredging concept is another favorite boondoggle and answers to questions about dredging could have been obtained from Wikipedia or any number of reference books, after which bids could have been solicited from vendors for the different methods that could be employed.

I understand I've hijacked the thread a bit, but the question of how localities spend tax money is pertinent to our times.

tired of know it alls August 31st, 2010 | 5:57pm

angel eyes - you obviously have all the answers so why don't you just march right in the BOS meetings with those 100 yr old encyclopedias and share that info. sounds like you're an engineer, mathematician and design specialist so you shouldn't have any trouble solving a little problem like the dam, dredging and traffic calming problems. know it alls usually know nothing.

**** August 31st, 2010 | 4:59pm

If they're not getting enough people through the gates to cover staffing three beaches, then close one or perhaps even two of them, making folks go to the remaining one, but to close all three? Makes no sense. I guess if you live in the county you have to go swim in a city pool? Maybe this is a reverse revenue sharing deal...

Frank Fountain August 31st, 2010 | 6:00pm

Just a thought . . . . . but what about those folks that bought a "Season Pass" from the County for these beaches? Do those folks get a partial refund? How much is the administrative cost associated with these refunds going to be?

Is it possible that closing the beaches early (and refunding those two remaining weekends to "season pass" holders) could actually cost more than $6K saved? Wouldn't that be ironic?

gascan August 31st, 2010 | 7:38pm

@Frank Fountain: The season is OVER.

Joe Pantop September 1st, 2010 | 12:09am

This is crap, the county police flush 6K down the toliet everyday without even being questioned. Quit buying them gear that only a SWAT Team in Iraq would need, ie. robots, x-ray cameras, and machine guns. Use the money to keep the lakes open! We can protect ourselves, we don't Barney Fife of the ACPD....with his high tech night vision bomb sniffing robot.

clinguist September 2nd, 2010 | 9:21pm

Yes, if you took into account the fact that the Arabic name Osama and the Irish name Sean both have their origin in the Biblical era name Asholee, the epic fail would come as no surprise to you.

osama September 3rd, 2010 | 11:39am

they were virginia undergrads who were there for a masters.
Palin 2012

HollowBoy September 1st, 2010 | 7:01am

Not a great fan of the city government- but at least they are keeping the city pools open on a Labor Day weekend, the traditional end of the season for pools to be open.
Pennywise and pound foolish is the only way to describe so many spending decisions by governments at all levels.

prainva August 31st, 2010 | 2:18pm

Okay, if we as taxpayers pay for the beaches to be open through Labor Day, and also pay admission to go to the beaches, it seems like the county is filling other holes with that money.

Gasbag Self Ordained Expert August 31st, 2010 | 2:41pm

very old timer, the county coppers had a crackdown this past weekend on all the ricer-mobile kids hanging around and racing up and down the 29 North business corrider. They were writing traffic tickets right and left. I guess some copper overtime was involved most likely, but this was a good thing.

The place the county cop chief really needs to concentrate on saving money is all the gas guzzling vehicles they are buying. And these vehicles being drive to and from work from surrounding counties. A lot of them don't even live in Albemarle County, but they are allowed take-home cars into the surrounding counties in which they do live. The damage done to the county cop car in Waynesboro on the way home not long ago would have been enough to keep the beaches open this extra two weeks.

True Conservative August 31st, 2010 | 5:31pm

Thank you Angel Eyes, well said. We pay the people in government positions high salaries in this area --way more than life guards, and I too believe the millions and millions spent on consultants, in many instances, is a waste of taxpayer money. They could have put dredging out to bid years ago and had all the information and prices needed to dredge and saved at least 10 million; closing swimming pools, schools, libraries and rest stops when we see goveernment wasting millions on self glorifying public work projects like the new dam is infuriating, but we are the ones to blame for electing these people --NEVER AGAIN -- cast a single vote for any of them for any office they chose to run for.

True Conservative August 31st, 2010 | 4:24pm

$12 million and counting to pay for consultants to come up with a way to build a dam we don't need; bet that could have kept some beaches open -when will the public wake up and elect some intelligent, fiscally responsible people to the Board of Supervisors.

Frank Fountain August 31st, 2010 | 9:54pm

@gascan: That’s my point exactly.

The County ended the season Ã¢â?¬Å?early”. People, in good faith, purchased Ã¢â?¬Å?Season Passes” with the (potentially pre-established) expectation that that the season would last two more weekends. If the County unilaterally (and apparently without notice) ended the season two weekends early, the County may very well owe the Ã¢â?¬Å?Season Pass” holders some type of refund.

In addition to the cost of the potential refunds themselves, the County may incur additional administrative expenses due to the potential refunds.

I honestly don’t know if this is a possibility with the County or not. I am not a County Ã¢â?¬Å?Season Pass” holder. However, I am a Ã¢â?¬Å?Season Pass” holder with the City. The City most definitely spells out the dates of the season (just check out the City’s website --> it’s currently posted). If the County made a similar assertion to the overall length of the season, then the County may owe partial refunds to their Ã¢â?¬Å?Season Pass” holders. If that is the case that would certainly impact (and possibly negate) the claimed $6K savings.

not so fast August 31st, 2010 | 9:47pm

@ gascan, Frank Fountain is right. The season is through Labor day. I just reviewed my season pass. I'll be filing my paperwork on Tuesday morning to get my 1/16th refund. Not good enough for the county? I'll take it to court if I have to. How much will that cost? It will only cost me an approximate 50 dollar filing fee for civil court. It's the principle y'know

Frank Fountain August 31st, 2010 | 10:02pm

@ not so fast: You should go for it.

Also, I got two words for . . . . Ã¢â?¬Å?class action”. I don’t know if one can file a class action against a political sub-division like the County, but it sounds like you and your fellow Ã¢â?¬Å?Season Pass” holders would be a clear and identifiable Ã¢â?¬Å?class”. I don’t know if you’d have a potential case or not (I’m not a lawyer), but the cost associated with simply addressing and dealing with such a claim would easily cost the County more than the $6K saved closing the beaches.

All in all, unilaterally closing the beaches early (to save $6K) may end up being a very short-sighted move on the part of the County.

Old Dominion Minion September 1st, 2010 | 12:38pm

@Osama: Why do you spend so much of your "valuable" time in the cyberspace of Virginia? All you seem to do here is use your short stick to stir up chit.

Old Timer September 1st, 2010 | 12:13pm

Interesting announcement. Maybe had it been put in the papers then, they would have gotten the feedback necessary. Sounds to me like the attitude is - well, we mentioned it, and we are going to do it anyways.

County residents who are unhappy can ask themselves if the time has come to either start paying a little bit more in taxes to cover their desire to live in urban sprawl, or to just go back to really living in a county. You know, on well water, fewer roads, unpaved roads.

Especially as they never expect the Developers of all these big subdivisions to actually pay for their infrastructure needs.

osama September 1st, 2010 | 11:09am

Virginia = Ignorance

very old timer September 1st, 2010 | 1:22pm

15 cents per person... sad, very sad,

Maybe county residents should ask themselves why they allow the county government to push them around so much.

If people would simply look at how the government manipulates them into paying more taxes for less services then things like this would not keep happening.

AS for me I thnk that they need to learn to spend what they get a iot more wisely.

Why do we have the same number of people in the building permits department when building has dropped off by 70%?

Why not rearrange some job descriptions to reflect the needs and lay some folks off. Private industry tightens their belts.

Private industry is also smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds it.

I doubt any hotels shut their pools down two weeks early.

Old Timer September 2nd, 2010 | 11:40am

"I doubt any hotels shut their pools down two weeks early."

Of course they do. All the time. Their customers are not likely to leave because of it.

Old Timer September 2nd, 2010 | 11:38am

very old timer,

I don't care to pay extra taxes, but as a resident, I intensely dislike the hypocritical stance of many of my fellow residents. They all seem to want a lot of city like living and city like services, but they don't want to pay city like taxes to pay for those services.

Drive around Albemarle High and ask yourself if it looks anything like county aka country living. Looks an awful lot like Greenleaf doesn't it? It's city living that exists because of this City called Charlottesville.

Well, all that urban sprawl out in places like Forest Lakes, and Pantops, and trying to get down 20 South has a huge infrastructure cost, as well as all the schools that had to be built, and the roads that must be maintained. The developers who build it really don't have to cover the cost, so it is never wrapped into the price of the house, showing the true market value.

That snow storm back in December with all the stranded people? 25 years ago you would have never had to worry about sort of thing, because County residents didn't plan their lives around commuting between Scottsville and Charlottesville every day. Of course, 25 years ago, the county did spend a bit more money on actually being prepared for snow removal and VDOT emergencies, but the reality is, they would have to do a lot more to provide the service level now demanded by county residents and their commuter urban convenience lifestyle. ( The City dropped the ball on that storm as well.)

I have great memories with kids of being at both the County beaches, but I had none of the expectations country residents do today. If you are a county resident that really lives like one, on well water, and doesn't drive in every day you should be mad. But blame county residents who demand city living in the county.

Yes September 2nd, 2010 | 8:56pm

"Above your pay grade" - Sarah Palin uses that phrase. #osamaepicfail

osama September 2nd, 2010 | 3:31pm

Yes - you didn't address anything i said, but thanks for trying. i know you mean well, but this is way above your paid grade buddy.